{"id":2866,"date":"2011-07-01T08:41:51","date_gmt":"2011-07-01T13:41:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=2866"},"modified":"2011-07-01T13:48:30","modified_gmt":"2011-07-01T18:48:30","slug":"my-bastardry-re-confirmed-bovard-and-his-ilk-food-stamps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/01\/my-bastardry-re-confirmed-bovard-and-his-ilk-food-stamps\/","title":{"rendered":"My Bastardry Re-Confirmed: “Bovard and His Ilk” [Food Stamps]"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wall Street Journal<\/strong> <\/a>published some letters on last week’s food stamp piece<\/strong><\/a>. According to Joel Berg of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger:<\/p>\n

Food-stamp fraud has never cost the American taxpayers anything close to what defense-contractor or corporate-welfare fraud costs, and the number of people illegally using food-stamp benefits has always been dwarfed by the number of Americans… eligible for assistance who fail to apply because they don’t want to be falsely labeled criminal by Mr. Bovard and his ilk<\/strong>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I always wonder: If I’m associated with an “ilk,” is that an upgrade for me or a downgrade for the “ilk”?<\/p>\n

Radamisto blog<\/strong><\/a> had a concise refutation of the article: “MEAN PEOPLE SUCK. I’m coming to think of that as the only slogan I need to argue against conservative policies. This is the latest outrage.”<\/p>\n

Commentors at the Daily Kos <\/strong><\/a>offered many insightful responses to the article: <\/p>\n

* Bovard is a well known lying sack of shit. He has been a hypocrite libertarian for years, very much in the Ron Paul mold. Read his book “Lost Rights” for all the examples you need. He blabs on and on about freedom to do this, freedom to do that, but does not think labor unions constitute freedom of association.<\/p>\n

* Tell him to clean up his OWN damn neighborhood – Wall St.!<\/p>\n

* Assholes like this just ought to shut the hell up.<\/p>\n

*Another shiny object to distract our attention from real problems. Another dog-whistle to bring obedient conserva- puppies to heel. Another step in the long-planned march toward fascism. Another link in the chain that will enslave us all.<\/p>\n

*if this columnist doesn’t like fraud and abuse in government programs, just wait till he finds out about the military and security apparatuses (apparati?). He’ll have a non-stop career of outraged column after outraged column to write!<\/p>\n

* We don’t ban highway traffic because people have been killed in car accidents…. But, this is the logic that assholes like Bovard are using.<\/p>\n

* There are numerous areas that have fraud and abuse, but I love how the Repubs focus on the poor. Heartless, every one…<\/p>\n

*Yeah, be nice if Blowhard took the same approach to the military.<\/p>\n

* Heartlessness doesn’t only reside in the breasts of “Libertarians” or the wealthy, it also lives in the breasts of scheming demagogues everywhere.<\/p>\n

*Bovard’s one of those crazier Libertarians who think it’s an affront to our liberty to keep people from starving.<\/p>\n

Daily Kos columnist “Something the Dog Said<\/strong>” declared: “When the nation has a crisis caused by folks like Bovard and it puts millions out of work and the government steps in to bail those assholes out, it is also incumbent on the government to do something for those who are suffering at no fault of their own.” <\/p>\n

This columnist seemed most offended by my opposition to having everyone depend on the government for their next meal: “The problem with this idea is that self-reliance is a myth. No one at the top of our earnings food chain got there all on their own. They went to great schools, from grade school on. These people benefitted from their parents money and connections… No human can ever be completely self reliant… We are all cogs in the machinery of our society… The myth of self-reliance that the Randites and Conservatives espouse is just a way to keep people divided.”<\/p>\n

And the best way to unify people is to compel them to rely on their political masters?<\/p>\n

The article generated more than 600 comments on the Wall Street Journal website. I have not read all of them – but here’s one guy’s contribution that reflected the sentiment of many folks: <\/p>\n

Oh, boo hoo hoo, there’s fraud in the food stamp program. No mention of the billiions of dollars in fraud perpetrated by the contractors in our 3 wars…. The hypocrisy displayed here is stunning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Apparently, any article that discusses a specific example of government waste or fraud is morally invalid unless it also lists every other type of waste and fraud. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wall Street Journal published some letters on last week’s food stamp piece. According to Joel Berg of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger: Food-stamp fraud has never cost the American taxpayers anything close to what defense-contractor or corporate-welfare fraud costs, and the number of people illegally using food-stamp benefits has always been dwarfed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nMy Bastardry Re-Confirmed: "Bovard and His Ilk" [Food Stamps] - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/01\/my-bastardry-re-confirmed-bovard-and-his-ilk-food-stamps\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"My Bastardry Re-Confirmed: "Bovard and His Ilk" [Food Stamps] - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Wall Street Journal published some letters on last week’s food stamp piece. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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